


Their Beach

by SharkGirl



Series: SpooOooOOoooOoky (Writober 2016) [23]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Day 23 - Reimagined Fairy Tale, M/M, MakoHaru Hinted, Merman!Haru, Shark!Rin, Sharks, The little mermaid - Freeform, Writober 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 03:07:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8354521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharkGirl/pseuds/SharkGirl
Summary: The moon was beautiful.  Perfectly round and white and shining like a pearl in the sky.  Oh, how he’d missed it!Among other things…Written for Writober 2016Day 23 - Reimagined Fairy Tale





	

**Author's Note:**

> Let's all agree that I'm awful at titles, yeah? But let's also ignore the fact that Mershark doesn't make any sense. Because Mer is Ocean/Sea and Shark is, well, Shark. So, he's a SeaShark?  
> Just go with it because Sharkmaid sounded worse, haha.
> 
> I rewrote this 500 times. I just kept changing things. SouRin fics are supposed to be easy for me to write...but I kept making it way too long or trying to explain way too much and... *sigh* I hope you guys like my final draft!
> 
> Un-beta'd. Please enjoy!!

Rin was in the mood for a race, so, naturally, the redheaded mershark sought out the only sea creature that had ever beaten him.

He spotted the young merman in question and grinned.  Haru was alone.  It was the perfect opportunity to issue a challenge.  But then he noticed something.  Haru had a small bag tied around his waist, just above where skin met fin, and, when he shifted, something shimmered inside.

Gold.  Human currency.

“You’re going to the surface.” It wasn’t a question.

Haru turned quickly to face him, but his stoic expression remained unchanged.

“I have some business to attend to,” Haru replied, always sounding more mature than he was.

“Buying information again?” Rin crossed his arms over his chest. “Those sailors will just take your money and spout out lies,” he growled. “They won’t tell you where your mystery prince is.”

“They will.” Blue eyes hardened. “Someone has to know where he lives.”

“And you’ll just keep paying random strangers until one of them tells you?” Rin snorted. “Haru, do you know how many humans there _are_ on land?”

“Do _you_?” Haru countered and Rin faltered, blinking in surprise as he stuttered.

“W-Well, you know,” he flailed his arms, his face pink. “There’s a lot, okay!”

The merman clicked his tongue and began swimming toward the surface again.

“You know it’s forbidden,” Rin barked and Haru paused, looking over his shoulder, his eyes cold.

“That didn’t stop _you_.”

Rin opened his mouth, but then closed it, biting his tongue so hard, he was sure he’d draw blood.  Of _course_ Haru would bring that up.

Yes, Rin used to go to the surface quite often.  It was how he’d discovered his talent.  His ability to change forms, to appear human.  He nearly drowned the first time he shifted.  He hadn’t even meant to do it.  He'd been staring up at the moon, enamored with its beauty.  Hell, if it hadn’t been for that human boy pulling him to shore, he’d be dead.

After his first rather traumatic visit, he continued to return to that island, pulling himself up onto the sand of the beach – _their_ beach – and transforming, waiting for the boy who’d saved him to appear, bringing sticks to build a fire and keep them warm as they sat and talked about anything and everything.

But Rin had been foolish.  He wasn’t careful enough and had gotten himself caught – outed by his own sister before he could make it to the surface and explain why he couldn’t meet Sousuke anymore.

It had been the talk of the reef when Rin was grounded, restricted from even leaving his family’s cave for months until he was finally granted enough freedom to swim on his own again without a chaperone.

But that was five years ago.

“Shut up,” he glared at Haru.

The other just looked away and took off, ready to find his _precious prince_ at any cost.

“Haru!” Rin called after him, but he was ignored. “Damn it.” That blue-finned idiot was going to get himself killed, meeting with random humans like that.

With an aggravated shake of his head, Rin took off after him.

Rin was a fast swimmer.  Fastest of all the sharks in his shiver and faster than any mermaid he’d come across.  Except for Haru.  And, since the other had gotten a head start, it wasn’t surprising that he’d lost him.

“Where did he go?” Rin swished his tail as he spun around in the water, sending a flurry of bubbles in every direction.  It didn’t help that Haru’s light blue fin granted him almost perfect camouflage.  He was about to give up when he spotted something shining on the surface, distorted by the ripples, but familiar.

The moon.

He hadn’t been this close in so long.

 _‘Don’t you **ever** go to the surface again,’_ his mother’s words echoed in his head. _‘Your father was killed by sailors. They hunt our kind.’_

But it would just be a quick peek.  One glance at the beautiful moon he hadn’t seen properly in years.

Rin propelled himself upward until he broke the surface, his gills flaring out as he tried to breathe.  It took him a moment to remember that he needed to take air in through his nose or mouth.

“Breathing like a human again.” He snickered, amused.  Then he looked up.

The moon was beautiful.  Perfectly round and white and shining like a pearl in the sky.  Oh, how he’d missed it!  Among other things…

He looked over at the island, an inky silhouette against the dark blue of the night sky.

Without thinking, he swam toward it.  He was near the beach with only a few swishes of his powerful tail.  Even though it had been years, he closed his eyes, remembering the feeling of his gills receding and his tail splitting, forming two human legs – perfectly awkward, but just like Sousuke’s.

He nearly fell over when he stood up, making his way across the uneven surface of the sand to their old meeting spot.

The baggy clothes he used to change into were still hidden under the same bush, much too small for him now, but he tried them on anyway, laughing at how short the pants were and how the fabric clung to his still-damp body.

There was no firewood there, long since blown away by a storm or dragged out to sea with the tide.

Rin sat down in his usual spot and closed his eyes, imagining the warmth of the fire and the sound of his old friend’s voice.

“Rin?”

Well, he had a pretty good imagination.  That sounded just like him.  Well, maybe this voice was a bit deeper than the one he remembered, but-

“Rin…is that you?”

The redhead opened his eyes.  Someone _was_ speaking.

He turned and saw a figure half out of the surf, pulling itself up onto the beach until it was illuminated by the light of the full moon.  It was a shark he’d never seen before, with a gorgeous spotted tail, almost twice the length of Rin’s own.  But soon the tail began to change, shifting into two very human legs.

“Rin,” the other breathed. “You came back.” He closed the distance between them, gazing warmly at Rin with eyes the color of the ocean.

Eyes Rin would never forget.  His heart skipped a beat.

“Sousuke?”

**Author's Note:**

> Wait a minute! They're BOTH sharkmen?! AND shifters?! And has Sousuke been coming back to their beach every night for the past five years?!!!! (No, he hasn't, but that part didn't make it into the final cut because this is supposed to be a short drabble, darn it)
> 
> I also left out the bit about Rin being half-human (the reason he can shift) So...his father was "killed by sailors" eh, Mrs. Matsuoka? Hmm....?
> 
> Gah! I almost forgot to add that Haru's story is The Little Mermaid (with a twist) He saved the Prince (Makoto, naturally) but couldn't find him afterward (he didn't conveniently almost drown near his own seaside castle)
> 
> Anyway, I had so many ideas for this, that it made it more difficult to write. I do hope you all enjoyed it, though.
> 
> Let me know what you think and hit me up on tumblr [@jubesy](http://jubesy.tumblr.com)!


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